152 Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. 1918. 



it does not fit the material in question, and Illiger's original 

 description of ignita concludes "plica submarginali," a char- 

 acter that no known species of our fauna, save bimarginata Say, 

 possesses. The writer does not think it allowable to determine 

 any species which lacks a submarginal fold as ignita 111. until 

 it has been definitely established that Illiger's original description 

 is incorrect and that the type of ignita 111. lacks submarginal 

 plicae. 



If we are to retain an American ignita 111., it seems best, 

 as Fall suggested; to consider the brilliant, coppery-golden form 

 of the middle Atlantic states, the typical ignita. This is with- 

 out doubt the species which Chittenden treated as the strawberry 

 flea-beetle (U. S. Bur. Ent. Bui. 23 n. s., p. 70-79, figs. 17-18), 

 although his description of the coloration of the adult is con- 

 fusing, and leads one to suspect that more than one species may 

 have been at work on the strawberries. 



All 3 species of the ignita group from Maine (comi, rosae, 

 and ulmi) are quite distinct from this typical "ignita" of Chit- 

 tenden, although all the members of this group are closely re- 

 lated, and the adults can only be separated, aside from color 

 and size which are constant at least in the 3 Maine species, by 

 comparatively minute characters. All the constituents of the 

 group have the ante-basal impression of the thorax deep and 

 entire, and in all the structure of the last ventral segment of the 

 male is the same, at least in so far as the writer has been able to 

 determine. The biological habits (especially the choice of food- 

 plants and the manner of egg deposition) and the color of the 

 fat-body are definite and characteristic for each species. The 

 larvae of all are very much alike ; the ground color and the 

 color of the anal proleg vary with the color of the fat-body. In 

 the larva of "ignita' of Chittenden tubercle iii (see fig. 10) is 

 present and setiferous on both the mesothorax and the meta- 

 thorax (Chittenden, 1. c, fig. 17) ; in comi and ulmi it is present 

 on both, but non-setiferous ; and in rosae, though present it is 

 non-setiferous on the metathorax, and is usually entirely want- 

 ing on the mesothorax. The pupae of all are identical save in 

 size and color. 



The references to ignita 111. and carinata Germ, are much 

 confused in entomological literature. Ignita of Lugger (1. c.) 

 is most certainly distinct from the 3 species of the ignita group 



